the other 55 billion come from nondefense programs, like health care, education, housing assistance. our chief political analyst gloria borger has been looking at all of these numbers. the dire consequences of going over the cliff, is it enough to force a deal? >> no. and that's what is sort of striking about it. when you talk to some liberal democrat, they actually say, you know what, maybe it's better to go off the cliff because you get the defense spending cuts that dana was talking about and the tax cuts for the wealthy expire. you can always restore the tax cuts for the middle class. she talked to some republicans, they say a bad deal is not what we want. they don't want any deal. and then, of course, you talk to the american public as we keep doing here. and the american public, take a look at this, they believe that if there is no deal, it would have a negative impact on their financial situation. i think the real problem here, wolf, is that every politician understands that they are going to get criticized if there is a deal. so what's going on right now is that they are posi